2010 CACE Penner Debates

Speakers

 "Morality today is understood through the prism of historicism and another of relativism. Shall they be defined in these new ways, in which case they disappear, or shall we return to the 'laws of nature and of nature’s God?'"

Dr. Larry Arnn
President, Hillsdale College

 Larry Arnn is the twelfth president of Hillsdale College. He received his B.A. in 1974 from Arkansas State University, graduating with the highest distinction. He received his M.A. in Government in 1976 and his Ph.D. in Government in 1985 from the Claremont Graduate School. He also studied in England from 1977 to 1980, first as a research student in International History at the London School of Economics, and then in Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford University. While in England, he also served as director of research for Martin Gilbert, now Sir Martin, of Merton College, Oxford, and the official biographer of Winston Churchill. He returned to the United States in 1980 to become an editor for Public Research, Syndicated, and from 1985-2000 he served as president of the Claremont Institute, an education and research institution based in Southern California. While at Claremont, he was the founding chairman of the California Civil Rights Initiative, which was passed by California voters in 1996 and prohibited racial preferences in state hiring, contracting and admissions.

Dr. Arnn is on the board of directors of the Heritage Foundation, the Henry Salvatori Center of Claremont McKenna College and the Claremont Institute. read more >>

"The bioethical challenge of human enhancement aims to make us more than human"

Dr. John Kilner
Director of Bioethics Programs at Trinity International University

John Kilner is professor of Bioethics and Contemporary Culture and director of Bioethics Programs at Trinity International University. He holds the Franklin and Dorothy Forman Chair of Christian Ethics and Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is also Senior Scholar for The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (CBHD) based in Bannockburn, Illinois. Until Fall 2005, Dr. Kilner served as President and CEO of CBHD.

Prior to joining Trinity and CBHD, Dr. Kilner served as Senior Associate for Religion, Culture, and Health Care Ethics at the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics in Chicago. He was also an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago.

Dr. Kilner has been researching and teaching in the fields of ethics and medicine since 1973. He has done research in Switzerland, Boston, and Kenya; he has taught at institutions such as Asbury Theological Seminary, the University of Kentucky, and Harvard University.

 "The new media translate us into their image and likeness, and we can barely recognize our true selves any more"

Dr. Eric McLuhan
in association with the University of Toronto

An internationally-known lecturer on communication and media, Dr. McLuhan has over 40 years’ teaching experience in subjects ranging from high-speed reading techniques to English literature, media, and communication theory. He has taught at many colleges and universities in both the United States and Canada. He is Honourary Professor, University of Buenos Aires. Fellow, St. Thomas More College, Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. McLuhan received his B.Sc. in communications from Wisconsin State University, 1972 and M.A., Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Dallas, 1980, 1982.

He has published articles in magazines and professional journals since 1964 on media, perception, and literature. Editor of and contributor to The Idler. Co-author, with Marshall McLuhan and Kathryn Hutchon, of college media text, City as Classroom (Irwin, 1977). Assisted Marshall McLuhan with research and writing of The Medium is the Massage, War and Peace in the Global Village, Culture is Our Business, From Cliché to Archetype, and Take Today: The Executive as Drop-Out. Co-author, with Marshall McLuhan, of Laws of Media: The New Science (University of Toronto Press, 1988). Co-editor of Essential McLuhan (Stoddart, 1995), and Who Was Marshall McLuhan? (1994; Stoddart, 1995). Author, The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake (University of Toronto Press, 1997), an interpretive study of Joyce’s magnum opus. Author, Electric Language: Understanding the Present (Stoddart, 1998). Editor, The Medium and the Light, a collection of Marshall McLuhan’s writings on religion and media (Stoddart, 1999). Editor of the academic journals, McLuhan Studies, and the Journal of Social and Biological Structures. Consulting editor, Voyager/Southam’s “McLuhan Project,” which produced (1997) a CD on Marshall McLuhan and his work. Editor, Understanding Media, Critical Edition (2003); McLuhan Unbound (2004); The Book of Probes (2004). In preparation: Invitation to the Dance, a study of how the ancient Egyptians used animation techniques to bring their “stilted” drawings to life; The Phoenix Playhouse, a study of the renaissance currently underway in Western culture; Cynic Satire, a study of literary and media satiric modes. Currently at the press: Theories of Communication (New York: Peter Lang, 2010); Media and Formal Cause (NeoPoesis Press, 2010); The Human Equation (Toronto: BPS Books, 2010) read more >>

Moderated by Dr. Charlie Emmerich of Trinity Christian College
and the Center for Law and Culture.

Charlie Emmerich is chair of the political science department at Trinity Christian College where he teaches courses in politics and law and serves as the pre-law director. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for Law and Culture, an educational initiative housed at Trinity, which prepares students for public service in law, government, and politics by providing worldview training in the Judeo-Christian tradition. In particular, the Center’s programs inspire future leaders in public life to glorify God, serve their neighbors, and care for creation.